


Of Names and Futures (But Mostly Names)

by Aeiouna



Category: Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon: Animal Parade
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-29
Updated: 2013-06-29
Packaged: 2017-12-16 12:54:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/862247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeiouna/pseuds/Aeiouna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you've just birthed the son of the Harvest King, you surely can't call him "Jimmy"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Names and Futures (But Mostly Names)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Etanseline](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etanseline/gifts).



> Spoilers for the end of the game if you pursue the Harvest King and/or attempt a New Game Plus.

Molly had made this climb many, many times before, but never with a child on her back. She could have just used the shortcut, sure, but she wanted to give her son the whole experience of climbing to the top of the mountain and seeing the whole upper mine. She had decided to bring the child to Ignis, her husband and his father, instead of him coming down to see them. Even though he was magic, it didn’t seem fair that they never came to visit him, since he must always stay on the mountain.

She was coming to him with a question, a conundrum. She hadn’t come up with a name for him yet. She needed Ignis to help her work her way through it.

She finally reached the top and made it to the bridge, the last piece that separated her from her beloved. It seemed like murder to her, these steps, but it would be worth it.

“My love,” Ignis was surprised to see her there, “What are you doing here? And you brought the little one.”

“I wanted him to see where his father must stay,” she smiled. “And I had a question, I needed your help. He needs a name.”

Ignis nodded. “This is true. He can’t go through like unnamed.”

“We can’t just give him any old name. After all, he’s your son.” Molly sat down on the side of the mountain top, rocking her son, their son, in her arms and looking up at her husband. “Normal names are for normal children.”

Ignis nodded, humming thoughtfully. “He needs something that tells the world his power.”

“Power?” Molly asked. She looked down at the baby in her arms. She couldn’t imagine her son as anything other than a precious baby, but she should have known he would grow up to be something special.

Ignis nodded again. “He will be strong, and smart, and will be able to live longer than the average man, though not immortal. He will also one day be taken to a distant island, an island parallel to ours, to be the one to help their people and their world since it is in peril much like ours was before you came along.”

Molly’s eyes never left her son. All of this was all so sudden, but she knows she should have expected it, since she did choose to be with Ignis and have his son. She rocked him a little more and wondered what this other world was like. What the people were like. “A distant, parallel island?”

Ignis nodded. “Its inhabitants are clones of the people you grew to know and like on this world. Except, of course, for you yourself. They’re in as much trouble as our world once was, and only one with a pure heart can be the one to give them the tools necessary to save it. That, of course, must be a child. And I wouldn’t be prouder if it were mine. He could one day be a great Harvest King like myself.”

“But he doesn’t live forever like you do, so how can he be a Harvest King?” Molly’s eyes finally left her son’s.

“It’s still possible, since he lives for so long. I would love to see it happen.”

Molly’s mind went to another thought. “Ignis?”

“Yes my love?”

“What are you going to do, you and our son, when I’m gone?” she knew their son would definitely outlive her, and Ignis outlived everybody (except for the witch, wizard, and Harvest Goddess), so what would they do?

“Well, our son will be on the parallel island, so I’ll be left alone to think of you, to remember you both. I will have no other choice.”

“Will you… love again?” she asked. “Love someone else like you love me?”

“I might, one day. I make no guarantees of anything. You are very special, that’s for sure.” He looked down at the two of them. So perfect. Molly, with her perfect smile, the way her eyes light up with love when she looks at their child. And the child, the perfect child. With his hair and eyes, a beautiful miniature version of himself. How he took this long to let himself love, he didn’t know. What he did know was that love, and family, was the most important thing in the world.

The baby started to fuss and Molly began to rock him again. She was still torn on a name. Everything that was coming to her mind was too normal. Not befitting of a son of the Harvest King. Why did this have to be so hard? If only she could come up with something noble, something awe inspiring, something that told the world who her son’s daddy was, and that he was proud.

But, nothing came to mind. “Why can’t this be any easier?” she asked, “It’s just a name, I know, but it can also be so much more. Names have meanings, and meaning have power, you know?”

Ignis nodded. “This is true. And I want him to have a name that stands out in its own right. I don’t want him named after me, or something.”

“No no, it has to stand on its own. The world will already know he’s your son,” she looked down at the baby again. “Wait, I might have it.”

“You do?”

“Sisu.”

“Sisu?” Ignis asked, “What does it mean?”

“It means willpower, determination, or strength. All qualities our son will have to possess if he is to be a future Harvest King. All qualities I know his father already has, and will pass down onto him. What do you think?”

Ignis repeated the name a few times to get a feel for it. Sisu, Sisu, Sisu. He liked it. It was unique, powerful, and strong, but it was easy to pronounce so the common folk would get it right. “How does he like it?”

“I don’t know,” Molly shrugged, “Let’s see.” She then cooed to the baby, “Hello Sisu. Aren’t you a handsome boy? Yes you are, Sisu, yes you are!” The baby’s excited, squealing replies let her know he didn’t hate it. “He loves it. Sisu it is.”

“Sisu it shall be.”

**Author's Note:**

> "Sisu" is an actual name in the Finnish language and it really does mean "willpower, determination, strength" as Molly says. Source: http://www.behindthename.com/name/sisu
> 
> The "parallel island in trouble" Ignis refers to is Waffle Island from Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. The New Game Plus requirements involve one of the player character's children growing a sapling and delivering it to Waffle Island.


End file.
